Weekes edges through in Baton Rouge

MATCH REPORT

Photo: William GreinerBen Weekes (AUS)

Rain delayed the start of the first day of the Cajun Classic, part of the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour, but once play got underway in Baton Rouge Australian sixth seed Ben Weekes came through a thrilling first round match to reach the last 16 of the men’s singles.

Weekes eventually dominated a final set tiebreak to edge out Brazil’s Daniel Rodrigues 26 62 76(0) and book his place in the second round against Canada’s Joel Dembe.

Elsewhere, with the top three seeds all having first round byes, third seed Gustavo Fernandez for Argentina will begin his bid for back-to-back ITF 1 Series titles against Brazil’s Carlos Santos. Santos ended local Baton Rouge player Shane Theriot’s hopes of reaching the second round after beating the American 60 60.

Top seed and world No. 2 Stephane Houdet will open his campaign in Baton Rouge against fellow Frenchman Thomas Vinatier.

John Becker, Anthony Lara and Sergio Naduville all secured straight sets wins and will represent the USA in the second round, where they all face seeded players.

Meanwhile, Mauricio Pomme and Rafael Medeiros have joined Santos to give Brazil three players in the last 16.

Quad quarterfinalists decided

The women’s singles will start on Thursday’s second day of play, but Wednesday’s first day ended with the line-up completed for the quad singles quarterfinals.

World No. 1 David Wagner opened his bid to follow up his Pensacola Open title with a 60 62 win over Britain’s Antony Cotterill, while second seed Nick Taylor beat Adrian Dieleman 61 60. Wagner plays India’s Harry Boniface Prabhu for a place in the semifinals.

Third seed Jamie Burdekin kept the British challenge alive after beating American David Buck 62 62. Burdekin plays American Greg Hasterok in the quarterfinals after Hasterok bounced back from dropping a first set tiebreak to beat Canada’s Gary Luker 67(5) 64 62.

Meanwhile, American David Jordan also recovered from dropping a first set tiebreak to defeat Japan’s Takahiro Koga 67(5) 64 61. Jordan faces Taylor in the quarterfinals.

Canada’s former world No. 2 Sarah Hunter dented British hopes after beating Adam Field 61 61. Hunter will now play South African fourth seed Lucas Sithole, who started with a confident 62 61 win over Francois Trawalter of France.